Envelope or container



Sept. 30, 1941.

A. s. CHANDLER ENVELOPE OR CONTAINER Filed May 16; 1939 INVENTOR 170077 J: Calm/0449?,

ATTORN Patented Sept. 30, 1941 ENVELOPE, OR CONTAINER Austin S. Chandler, Fitchburg, Mass, assignor to The Brown Bag Filling Machine Company, Fitchburg, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application May 16, 1939, Serial No. 274,062

2 Claims. (01. 229- -85) 1 The invention relates to quick-opening means for paper bags and/or containers, sometimes called envelopes, and particularly to what are known in the packaging trade as fiat bags which are largely used and have a general similarity of blank and fold, in that they include a front wall orpanel, two side flaps or back fiaps folded into lapping relation and gummed together at their meeting edges, and a closing flap or tongue extended from the top end of the front wall. The opposite end is variously formed by infolding, and the bag is closed in various ways, either by folding down and securing the tongue or by folding both walls toward the back and securing the fold by attaching the tongue to the back wall, or by other means. It is an object of this inventionv to enable the provision of an improved rip device for bags of this general type and having special value in flat or envelope bags of the kind first mentioned as used in automatic bag-filling machines, in enabling the filling and closing of the bags with standard machines without alterations.

Another aim is to enable the productionof coacting shearing members on the end of a package asforrned so that it may readily be opened at its lower end for discharge of the contents into a cup or otherwise. i

. Itis an object of this invention to obtain the advantage of an inserted rip strip of paper or other material with the use of a minimum of material, and without resultant loss of capacity of the container to hold material such as powder and granular materials or its capability of retaining the pulverulent materials against sifting out or loss by vaporization. I am aware of the patents to Rosenberg, No. 673,224; Fitzsimmons, 1,128,862; and Vandergriif, No. 1,013,909, and it is,an aim to attain a still simpler article than these deviceswas well as one with greater capabilities of use, especially for pulverulent materials. H An important object of the invention in one form isto present an envelope having a shearing element therein which will have a minimum of inserted material to enable a definite shearing of the end of ,an envelope, and which at the same time will present a plain appearance having .no indication of the nature of the inserted shear element, and not excluding any portion of the envelope fromuse to hold contents in order to. enable the inclusion of the shearing element. Additional objects, advantages and features of invention reside in the construction, arrange- .ment. and combination of. parts involved in the embodiment of the invention, as will appear from the following description and accompanying drawing, wherein Figure 1 is a back view of an ordinary fiat bag or envelope commonly used in filling and closing machines for packaging various materials and size and arrangement on the same blank.

Figure 5 is a cross section of the bag completed with the last mentioned modification.

Figure 6 is a longitudinal section through the last mentioned modification.

There is illustrated in Figures 1 to 3 an envelope or bag of a common form, generally known as a fiat bag, including a rectangular front face wall 20, from which areextended side flaps 2| and 22, respectively, folded in at the side creases 23 and lapped to form the back seam 24, held by the application of gum in the familiar way. A closing tongue 25 is formed on the top edge of the wall 20 and at its bottom edge a bottom tongue flap 26 is formed. The top edges 21 of the side flaps may conform to usual practice. The lower edges 21' of the side flaps preferably extend at right angles to the side seams so that when the side flaps are joined these lower edges of the side flaps aline and extend transversely and rectilinearlyacross the bag at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the bag. But the edges 21 may be inclined, if desired.

As shown in Figure 2, before forming the bag, a strip 28 of thin, tough material, stiffer than the paper of the blank, is provided on the blank. This may be an added piece, corresponding to postal manila paper, secured by adhesive or otherwise, to the inner face of the blank near the bottom, extending the full distance between the creases 23, with its outer and lower longitudinal edge 29 spaced a distance inwardly of a projection of the lines of the bottom edges 21' of the side flaps equal to the width of the strip or more. The bottom tongue, inthe present instance, is a short one extending the full distance between the creases 23, and having an outer edge 28 parallel to the line of the bottom edges 21 of the side flaps.

In the forming of the bag, one of the side flaps is suitably gummed along its longitudinal edge and the two side flaps foldedinward over the front wall and the applied strip and secured together to form the seam 24, and a back wall 29. The bag at this time is substantially a flattened tube open at both ends. A crease 30 is formed across the lower end of this tube across both the wall 29 and the front wall, immediately adjacent the lower edge of the strip 28. A heavy coat of gum 3| is applied to the bottom tongue 26, and the lower part of the flattened tube, and then the lower part of the flattened tube and the tongue 26 are folded inwardly and upwardly on the crease 30, forming a back flap 26", after which this flap and tongue 26 arepressed down so as to secure the tongue to the face fof the back wall 29 above the strip 28. In this way, afterfthe setting of the gum holding the fiap 26" to the back of the envelope, there is formed above the cent where it is held to the strip 28, while the latter shears through the material of the back wall and bottom flap immediately adjacent where V I the latter are secured together in the element 32.

strip 28 a laminated stiffened portion 32 of the .7

envelope materials falls inwardly of and above the, strip 28 on the 3 back wall of the envelope, lying parallel thereto and spaced slightly therefrom as indicated in Figure 1, and affording 'an unstiffened intervening gum free area or zone with the advantages as hereinafter referred to. The gummed part of the tongue 26 thus constitutes an added strip attached to the back wall of the envelope and serving functions additional to'those of merely sealing the bottom of the envelope, as will appear; the sealing of the bottom of the envelope being attained principally by the gum applied to the backwall on the lower part of the flattened tube as before referred to. At the same time no interruption of surface of the bottom flap is involved and no exceptional projections are in volved on the back of the envelope.

This: bag may be filled by usual bag filling machines, and the fully space within the bagbeside and to the lower edge of the strip 28 may be utilized for holding contents. The tongue 25 maybe closed in any usual way, so that materials introduced ,into the bag are securely held therewithin with a minimum liability of loss by sifting or percolatingfrom the corners or from under the gummed flaps. The contents also are 3 held from contact with-the glue or other gums for sealing the bottom flap and closing tongue.

To open the bag formed as described, the bag is grasped at one of the lower corners between the thumb and finger of one hand; so'that the end of the strip 28 'is subjacent and is between these finger ends, while with the otherhand the bag is held between the thumb and a finger, disposed close to those gripping the lower corner. The two parts thus grasped are then moved in opposite directions from the medial plane of the bag, the strip 28 and laminated part 32 being used, and functioning as, shear members to sever the material between the strip 28 and secured area of the tongue 26, or cause it to tear on a corresponding line across the end, of the bag. The contents 3! may then be discharged through the open end thus formed on the bag.

The strip 28 with the attached wall l comprise a laminated portion opposed to the one'32,

, having the same proportions.

In Figures 4, 5, and 6, the form of the bag is very similar to "that in Figures 1, 2 and 3, the

bag having the same wall and flap elements and creases as in the first described form and also But the strip 28a corresponding to the strip 28 first mentioned, is extended beyond the creases 23 of the blank, one end lying flush with the longitudinal edge of one side flap 23, as at 33, and at he opposite end stops short of the longitudinal edge of the respective adjacent side flaps, as at 34,

" above d escribed adding to the certainty of a the mutually adjacent edges of thetwo laminations, as at 38. Due to this gum-free Portion being more readily sheared than a gummed part, positive shearing at this line will occur.

In the filling of the last described form of the bag, the opposed strip portions 28 -11 on the respective walls, will be separated by the opening ofthe bag, or by the introduction of the material used to fill the bag, and by the material. itself that is introduced, so that no material space within the bag is sacrificed by the inclusion of such opening device.

In a place of the strips such as 28 and 28-41, other means may be utilized to'form corresponding shear elements. One such method consists in applying a coating of a material adapted .to dry into a hard element adapted for the use contemplated, and which may include a portion infused into the paper; the element thus formed having approximately the same size, location, and functions as the applied fiber strip, and so constituting a strip of adhesively applied mater1a I claim:

1. In an envelope of the character described, a blank shaped to present a front wall and a back wall, the front wall having a'bottom flap extended longitudinally therefrom, a shear strip on the inner face of the front wall at least, spaced from the bottom boundary of the walls and united throughout its length with the front Wall at least and being a band of sufiicient width to be grasped initially by the fingers of a person for the use described, said walls being both folded inward together upon the back wall on a line immediately outward of said strip, and said bottom flap at least extended a distance longitudinally insecuring a separate strip to each respective wall of the envelope in parallel zones slightly offset from each other longitudinally of the envelope, the mutually adjacent edges of said shearing members being operative as shear members upon the adjacent unattached wall portions when said members are moved in opposite directions substantially normal to the medial plane of the envelope, said zone of the front wall being unattached to the back wall.

AUSTIN S. CHANDLER. 

